Covering overseas tourists under digital umbrella, foreigner can now extend visa online
New Delhi, April 14: Enabling online services for foreign tourist touring India. The foreign tourist will no longer need to visit the Foreigners Registration Office or the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRO/FRRO) for visa-related services, including registration and visa extension, which will now be offered online through the e-FRRO platform.
Home minister Rajnath Singh on Friday launched the web-based application ‘e-FRRO’, which will allow foreign tourists/travellers to avail of paperless and cashless visa-related services online while eliminating the need for any human interface.
In the new system, foreigners will be able to get 27 visa and immigration-related services in India from the comfort of their place of stay. Using the e-FRRO application, foreigners can apply online and obtain the services through email or post without appearing in person at the FRO or FRRO.
Some of the features of the e-FRRO include online FRRO service delivery mechanism without requirement of visiting the FRRO/FRO barring in exceptional cases. Using this application, foreigners are required to create their user ID by registering themselves. Afterwards, they can apply online through registered user ID for various visa and immigration related services in India like registration, visa extension, visa conversion, exit permit etc. The e-FRRO scheme has been running successfully in four FRROs (Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai) since February 12. Now, it has been rolled out in Kolkata, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
In the present system, foreigners staying in India on visa duration of more than 180 days have to get themselves registered with their respective FROs/FRROs. Similarly, foreigners requiring different kind of visa related services such as visa extension, visa conversion, change of address, change of educational institutions and exit permits are currently required to visit the FROs/FRROs office.